Website: www.aaiil.uk

Unreliable and reliable sources of the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad:

Martin Lings’ story about Abu Dharr

Friday Khutba by Dr Zahid Aziz, for Lahore Ahmadiyya UK, 18 July 2025

“Certainly Allah conferred a favour on the believers when He raised among them a Messenger from among them —selves, reciting to them His messages and purifying them, and teaching them the Book and the Wisdom, although before that they were surely in manifest error.” — ch. 3, Āl-i ‘Imrān, v. 164	لَقَدۡ مَنَّ اللّٰہُ عَلَی الۡمُؤۡمِنِیۡنَ اِذۡ بَعَثَ فِیۡہِمۡ رَسُوۡلًا مِّنۡ اَنۡفُسِہِمۡ یَتۡلُوۡا عَلَیۡہِمۡ اٰیٰتِہٖ وَ یُزَکِّیۡہِمۡ وَ یُعَلِّمُہُمُ الۡکِتٰبَ وَ الۡحِکۡمَۃَ ۚ وَ اِنۡ کَانُوۡا مِنۡ قَبۡلُ لَفِیۡ ضَلٰلٍ مُّبِیۡنٍ ﴿۱۶۴﴾
“…but Allah has endeared the faith to you and has made it attractive in your hearts, and He has made hateful to you disbelief and transgression and disobedience. Such are those who are rightly guided — a grace from Allah and a favour. And Allah is Knowing, Wise.” — ch. 49, Al-Ḥujurāt, v. 7–8	…وَ لٰکِنَّ اللّٰہَ حَبَّبَ اِلَیۡکُمُ الۡاِیۡمَانَ وَ زَیَّنَہٗ فِیۡ قُلُوۡبِکُمۡ وَ کَرَّہَ اِلَیۡکُمُ الۡکُفۡرَ وَ الۡفُسُوۡقَ وَ الۡعِصۡیَانَ ؕ اُولٰٓئِکَ ہُمُ الرّٰشِدُوۡنَ ۙ﴿۷﴾ فَضۡلًا مِّنَ اللّٰہِ وَ نِعۡمَۃً ؕ وَ اللّٰہُ عَلِیۡمٌ حَکِیۡمٌ ﴿۸﴾

The first verse I recited says that Allah did a great favour to the believers by raising from among themselves a messenger who recites to them the revelation he receives from Allah, and purifies them, and teaches them what is in the Quran and how to act on its teachings wisely. It adds that before the coming of this Messenger his people were undoubtedly misguided. The second passage I recited describes how Allah made them love their new faith and showed its beauty to their hearts, at the same time making it hateful to them to go wrong, whether in terms of beliefs or actions. They became rightly-guided, as a special favour from Allah.

Last week I mentioned in my Khutba the book Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources by British Muslim convert Martin Lings, published around the year 1980. However scholarly and learned Martin Lings may have been, and however many awards his book may have won in the Muslim world, the fact is that his book is full of unfounded stories which, for centuries, have been providing the Western critics of Islam with material with which to attack Islam on various grounds. These earliest sources are known in Islamic literature as seerahs, or in Urdu Seerats. Being earliest does not make them the most accurate in terms of facts. Their authors collected together everything they heard about the Holy Prophet’s time without any checking of who was relating those stories, or if those stories made any sense.

The most accurate source of the Holy Prophet’s life is the Quran itself. Of course, it is not written like his life-story, but whatever it tells us about the events of his life or his qualities are regarded as actual facts by all scholars of Islam, whether Muslim or non-Muslim. Then there are the collections of the sayings and deeds of the Holy Prophet, such as Sahih Bukhari and Muslim, providing many details of various aspects of his life. While their information is not always fully accurate, and can sometimes be wrong, their compilers did their best to check which persons they obtained their reports from, and whether they were reliable reporters. Even though the books of Hadith such as Bukhari were compiled later than the seerahs, still they are more reliable than the seerahs. Unfortunately, Lings has simply repeated the stories from these seerahs, even when we can see from the Quran and Hadith that certain events related in those stories could not be true.

I recited the above verses because of a story related in the book by Lings about the acceptance of Islam by a well-known Companion of the Holy Prophet Hazrat Abu Dharr. He belonged to the tribe of Bani Ghifār who lived a long way from Makkah. Lings writes:

“Like most of his tribesmen, Abu Dharr was a highwayman.”

A highwayman is someone who robs travellers that are passing along highways. He heard that there was a man in Makkah among the Quraish claiming to be a prophet and preaching that there is no god but the One True God. As he himself believed this, he decided to go and see this man, i.e., the Holy Prophet Muhammad. Abu Dharr was a stranger in Makkah and he had difficulty in finding the Holy Prophet because, due to the persecution of Muslims by the Quraish, he could not openly ask anyone to take him to the Holy Prophet. Anyhow, although this detail is not given by Lings, but according to Sahih Bukhari Abu Dharr himself later related that by chance he met Hazrat Ali and confided in him that he was looking for the man who is claiming to be a prophet. Hazrat Ali asked Abu Dharr to follow him but in such a way that no one would know that he was following him. Thus he led him to the Holy Prophet. Abu Dharr asked the Holy Prophet to tell him what Islam was, and upon hearing it he accepted Islam. According to the account in Lings, the Holy Prophet was surprised that a man belonging to the Bani Ghifār, “who were mostly robbers”, accepted Islam. Then Lings writes:

“Having instructed him in Islam the Prophet told him to return to his people and await his orders. So he returned to the Bani Ghifār, many of whom entered Islam through him. Meantime he continued his calling as highwayman, with special attention to the caravans of Quraish. But when he had despoiled (i.e., robbed) a caravan he would offer to give back what he had taken on condition that they would testify to the Oneness of God and the prophethood of Muhammad.” (p. 54)

Regarding this last remark, did Martin Lings think about what he was writing? A man who was a highway robber of travellers, like his fellow tribesmen, makes a special and risky journey to come to see the Holy Prophet Muhammad, he is then instructed in Islam by Holy Prophet himself, yet after returning home he still continues to rob travellers as his occupation. Wouldn’t the Holy Prophet, who knew that this man’s job was being a robber, have warned him that it is a serious sin to rob travellers? Apparently not, according to the story presented by Lings. And this story makes matters worse when it relates that, while continuing to rob after embracing Islam, Abu Dharr now offered to return the goods that he stole from travellers back to them if they agreed to recite the Kalima “There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah”. The literature produced against Islam in the West for several centuries has been presenting the Muslims of the Holy Prophet’s time as a band of cut-throat robbers who coerced non-Muslims to become Muslims by intimidation or offering some worldly inducements. The incident described by Lings, who was a Muslim and an Islamic scholar, will confirm and substantiate the allegations made by the critics of Islam. What answer will Muslims give when these critics say to Muslims: This kind of behaviour is recorded in your own books?

If we examine this last part of the story in the light of the Quran and Hadith, it is obvious that Abu Dharr could not have continued robbing people (assuming he did so originally). The first verse I recited declares that the Holy Prophet purified the believers, and made them turn away from their previous wrongdoings. The second passage I recited tells us that those accepted Islam at the hand of the Holy Prophet came to hate doing acts of evil and wickedness. How could any of them, particularly one who is prominent in Islamic history, commit robbery as a profession after accepting Islam?

The Quran also mentions two cases of previous prophets, Shuaib and Lot, whose people indulged in highway robbery. Shuaib apparently was the man who gave his daughter in marriage to Moses when Moses was on the run from Egypt. The Quran says that Shuaib said to his people:

“…give full measure and weight and do not diminish to people their things, nor make mischief in the land after its reform. This is better for you, if you are believers. And do not lie in wait on every road (meaning to ambush travellers)…” (7:85–86).

These are the basic teachings of a prophet who came long before the Holy Prophet: give to people in full what they are entitled to, without reducing it in the least, don’t create disorder in the country, and don’t lie in wait along roads to catch and rob travellers. The prophet Lot, who was a nephew of the great prophet Abraham, also blamed his people for “committing robbery on the highway” (29:29). This obviously is such a universal and ancient teaching, namely, that “committing robbery on the highway” is a highly wrongful act, that Abu Dharr after accepting Islam could not have been unaware of it.

If we turn to the story of the conversion of Abu Dharr as reported in Sahih Bukhari (hadith 3522/3, 3861) there is no mention in it at all that Abu Dharr after accepting Islam still robbed people. What it says is something truly inspiring, which is not to be found in the account given by Lings. It says that after Abu Dharr accepted Islam at the hand of the Holy Prophet, the Holy Prophet advised him:

“Keep this matter secret, return to your land, and when you hear of our victory, come again.”

This was because of the persecution he would face if it was found out in Makkah that he had become a Muslim. But Abu Dharr replied:

“I will shout about this to them.”

He then went to the Mosque, i.e., the Ka‘bah, and announced in the presence of some Quraish people:

“O you Quraish people, I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.”

They got up and started beating him almost to death, until someone intervened. Abu Dharr did the same the next day and was again badly beaten until the same person intervened. The story in Bukhari ends at this point. Some say that this beating happened a third time as well, after which he returned to his land. This action by Abu Dharr was one of great courage, bravery and inspiration. Can such a man lie in wait by the roadside to pounce on innocent travellers, take their possessions, and then offer to return them if they agree to recite the Kalima?

Abu Dharr is the narrator of many hadith reports from the Holy Prophet Muhammad. There is one about himself, that the Holy Prophet said:

“Under the sky and upon the earth, there is no one more truthful in speech and faithful to his promises than Abu Dharr. He is an image of Jesus, son of Mary” (Tirmidhi, hadith 3802).

And some years after the death of the Holy Prophet, when wealth and riches came to the Muslims through the spread of their rule, Abu Dharr preached and campaigned against the accumulation of wealth by individuals. So, robbing travellers due to their vulnerability is not something such a person would do.

When we as Ahmadis read such stories, as presented by Lings, we immediately realise that they damage the image and reputation of Islam. That realisation comes about in us because our Movement was founded to answer allegations against Islam by its Western critics. It studied them closely and answered them. But others don’t have that background, and either they cannot see or they do not care that they are spreading material which is damaging to Islam.

So may Allah enable us to enhance and improve the standing of Islam in the world by presenting authentic and inspiring knowledge about it— ameen.

Website: www.aaiil.uk